Thank you for dropping by Nawfal Johnson Nur's Photography Blog: The SmokePhotographist. This is where you can see Nawfal's Abstract Expressionism Photography, and his Freelance Commission, and Commercial Photography. If you need or want decorative art photographs for your interior design projects; if you want to commission Nawfal; or, if you need people, dance & stage, head shot, or event photography done, then please contact Nawfal for a quotation and scheduling!

Friday, January 13, 2006

Maybe some of you out there can identify with this; however, most of you can not I'm sure.

If you are in the CREATIVES field, such as a photographer or painter, then you DON'T want to have IRITIS.

You see this picture, well that is how I'm seeing everything right now out of my right eye. Perhaps you've heard of A.S. (Ankylosing Spondylitis) - it's an Auto-Immune disease that is no fun and I've had it for over 20 years. Basically, with A.S., many of the joints in your body start stiffening up, turning to bone material, and half the time, you feel like you are walking around like a stick - stiff and painful. If you have "hard-core" A.S., you may already be pretty immobile. I would consider myself lucky as my degree of A.S., is in the medium range.

Part of the fun of having this disease (joking of course) is that most of us A.S.'ers also suffer from Iritis, which is a nasty and very very painful eye condition where the Iris gets stuck to the pupil. When this happens, it feels like your eyeball is going to explode! This eye problem is very much associated with A.S., it is all part of the same problem just a different part of the body is affected.

Anyway, I just wanted to illustrate to you what I see out of my right eye at the moment and how foggy things are for me. I should not even be at the computer right now, but I thought it was important to share this experience with anyone who may stop by to read my blog.

Of course, the eye sight in my right eye is worse than the overexposed and foggy look of this picture, but it is a fair example.

An additional problem with having Iritis is that if NOT treated and if the sufferer does not rest, it can lead to Glaucoma and even blindness. So, Iritis is nothing to screw around with.

Iritis is even worse for you if you depend on your sight as part of your career or business.

Nobody wants to be without sight! Seeing is a wonder, it is a miracle, it is something that you never want to be without. Most of us, however, probably don't think about this gift of sight much. We probably just take it as a natural part of our "being" and expect it to work all the time. You wouldn't even appreciate it much until you are threatened with losing it.

On average, I get Iritis about every 1.5 years and it is horrible. It takes AT LEAST 4-weeks of pure rest - no work - to recover from. It really makes a mess of my nerves and I hate not doing anything useful! However, to get over Iritis you need to rest your eye, take a ton of meds and that is a job in itself.

So, if you ever have a serious eye condition, don't mess around with it. Go visit an eye doctor right away. I'm sure you don't want to be seeing beautiful things in nature as overexposed and foggy images. I've learned this the hard way, and it still holds true - you never really know and appreciate what you have in your life until you are without it - and that my friends is a very hard lesson to experience.(c) 2006 Nawfal Nur ~ All Rights Reserved

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Wow, it's 2006! Can't believe it, but time waits for no-one! Here's a shot of a new car's headlights. Ideal conditions would be a dust-proof, car-sized studio with continuous lighting sources for big objects, like cars. However, when that is not an option, what to do? Well, take your lights outside. A long extension cord or battery powered lights work well - keep the source light close to the subject, in this case the lights. Adjust your White Balance for the color effect you want. Keep dust off the best you can with a hand-held air-blower and keep the painted surface clean. Cursed are the reflections that you will experience when shooting this type of shot, so you will need a BIG reflector of some sort to cut out the distractions, like your own reflection in the glass, metal or mirrors. Most other distractions and flaws can be cut out, or covered over during post-production using photo editing software. Happy New Year 2006 and Happy Shooting!(c) 2006 Nawfal Nur ~ All Rights Reserved

About Nawfal

Art & Photography blend for the Photographic-Art that Nawfal designs. Nawfal's influences include the Abstract Expressionist painters, especially Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. Nawfal loves to design art-pieces that are expressionistic lively swirls, clouds, lines, and dots of color and spaces. Nawfal also creates Color-Field Photographic Collections, which is where Rothko has influenced his work. Nawfal does not necessarily believe a photographer can narrow-down their focus to three main subjects, as some people would advise. Nawfal has been working with some form of photography for 36-years; and since 1998, he has worked as a freelance photographer designing art photography, producing publication features, and working with a variety of clients to provide artwork and commercial-style photography. Nawfal's main concerns whenever he photographs is to to produce images that his clients will be "WOW'ed" with; and to take better photographs each time he picks up his camera. Nawfal is a good'ol boy from Lincoln, Nebraska; however, since 1994, he has lived in his wife's home city, Georgetown, Malaysia.